Thursday, February 20, 2025

02/20 Links Pt1: The death of the Bibas family is a stain on the human conscience; The Dark Side of UNRWA; 3 buses explode in planned terror attack

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Civilization weeps
After the heartbreak comes a profound anger. The return from Gaza of the bodies of the murdered Israeli hostages Shiri Bibas and her small children, 9-month-old Kfir and 4-year-old Ariel—after a grotesque Hamas propaganda stunt displaying their coffins and accusing Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, of killing them—has triggered in the already deeply traumatized Israeli people a bottomless grief and a demand for justice at long last

Shiri’s parents, Yossi and Margit Silberman, were also murdered on Oct 7, 2023. The suffering of her husband Yarden, who was released from Hamas captivity only three weeks ago, is unconscionable.

Oded Lifshitz, aged 83, the fourth hostage whose body was returned with the Bibas family and who had made it part of his routine living near the Gaza border to drive countless Arabs from Gaza to hospital appointments in Israel, had his kindness repaid when they burned down his home, took him and his wife hostage and then murdered him.

The fate of all the other individuals slaughtered, raped, tortured, beheaded, burned alive and kidnapped into Gaza in the Oct. 7 atrocities is no less shattering.

But the terrified face of Shiri Bibas cradling her children as they were dragged into Gaza will haunt many of us forever. The Bibas family will remain a symbol of the unspeakable evil visited upon Israel on that black day and that it continues to confront.

It’s also a symbol of the West’s descent into inhumanity and its tacit endorsement of barbarism. In city after city, people whose faces were contorted with hatred and rage tore down posters of baby Kfir and other hostages from public places.

What kind of people feel such hatred and rage at pictures of babies, children, women and men who have been kidnapped by barbaric savages?

This was a mass outbreak of a collective pathology. It has illustrated the extent of the West’s crisis of civilization. And at the heart of that crisis lies the attitude to Israel and the Jewish people.

The hostage posters were torn down because for supporters of the Palestine cause, nothing can be allowed to challenge their narrative of hapless Palestinians and Israeli colonizers who drove them out of their ancient homeland and have oppressed them ever since.

Every part of that narrative is, of course, a lie. The Jews are the indigenous people of the land of Israel—the only people for whom it was ever their national kingdom. Palestinian identity is a fiction cooked up in the 1960s between the Egyptian-born “Palestinian” terrorist leader Yasser Arafat and the Soviet Union.
Brendan O'Neill: The death of the Bibas family is a stain on the human conscience
Staggeringly, some in the West conspired with Hamas’s treatment of baby Kfir as a ‘coloniser’ deserving of captivity. People ripped down posters of Kfir in cities across the West. Nora Berman reported seeing a likeness of him ‘ripped in half’ just weeks after the pogrom. A mural in London featuring Kfir was vandalised. At Harvard University, an image of Kfir was defaced and a poster of his brother, Ariel, was blacked out with paint. As the Jerusalem Post rather politely put it, ‘Harvard’s so-called enlightened community appears to have lost its moral compass’.

Think about the moral delirium it must require, the sheer political savagery, to deface an image of a baby Jew who had just been kidnapped in the worst pogrom since the Nazi era. The Westerners who raged against posters of Kfir – and the other hostages, too – were essentially swearing fealty to Hamas. They were giving brute expression on the streets of the West to Hamas’s bigoted belief that there are no innocent Israelis. To its twisted conviction that every inhabitant of the ‘Zionist entity’ is a legitimate target, from the nine-month-old baby who has never uttered a word to the 84-year-old man who campaigns for peace.

This imposition of collective guilt on to all Jews in Israel was echoed on those weekly marches too, where Israel was damned as a criminal state ailed by ‘genocidal mania’, a state whose destruction would be a boon for Palestinians and for humankind. ‘Progressives’ had no time to comment on Kfir and his family – they were too busy agreeing with Hamas that the Jewish State is a pox and its people a plague. Meanwhile, Western leaders said next to nothing about the Bibas family. ‘Perhaps you have forgotten about little Kfir Bibas’, Israel’s ambassador to the UN raged during yet another UN discussion about the problem of Israel last month. ‘But I promise you, we haven’t’, he said.

The death of the Bibas family is a stain on the entire human conscience. An Islamist death cult came for a family of Jews and the self-styled virtuous of the West either said nothing or made excuses for it. Kfir’s short life and awful death is as much an indictment of our own civilisational disarray as it is of Hamas’s barbarism. It shows, too, why Israel must survive and flourish. Next time someone asks you why there needs to be a Jewish State, tell them it’s because there are people who are happy to kill a baby Jew and others who are happy to deface images of that baby Jew. It’s this hatred that makes Israel essential.
The Bibas family symbolised the horror of October 7
As I write these words, the heavens are crying. Coffins of (supposedly) four Jewish hostages, Shira Bibas and her babies Kfir and Ariel and Oded Lifshitz are being transferred in a sick display from the monsters in Gaza via the useless puppets called the International Red Cross, home to Israel.

The video of a terrified young mother being abducted into Gaza holding her two red-headed babies, surrounded by men forcing her to cover up and giving her orders in Arabic and English is one of the most well known images from October 7. The Bibas Family became a household name and few of us could see redheads without thinking of them, wondering what had become of them.

For Israel and Jews worldwide, the Bibas children were the symbol of the hostages, taken from their homes in pyjamas, some by gunmen, some by mobs of civilians. The whereabouts of Shiri and the children were a mystery since the day a video emerged of them having been taken to Khan Yunis by the terror group “Kataib Mujahadin”.

Over a year ago, Hamas claimed Shiri and the children were killed by an Israeli airstrike but provided no proof. They forced father Yarden, released just a few weeks ago, to film a video in captivity blaming Israel for the deaths of his wife and children.

The civilian hordes who came through the fence to rape, loot, murder, kidnap and steal destroyed not only families, but also the dreams of the most peacenik Israelis, those who for years had sent kites of peace over the fence, who dreamed of shared industrial zones, planned joint photography exhibits, and drove sick Palestinans to hospitals. Those like Lifshitz, 84 at the time of his kidnapping, who was a dedicated peace activist who spent decades driving Palestinians to medical appointments in Israel and working towards peace.


Israel mourns Bibas family, Oded Lifshitz as bodies freed from Gaza
Israel redeemed on Thursday the bodies of four slain hostages from Hamas captivity in Gaza: the three members of the Bibas family—mother Shiri, infant son Kfir and his older brother Ariel, and octogenarian Oded Lifshitz.

The Red Cross handed four coffins to Israel Defense Forces troops and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) agents in the Gaza Strip, after the Geneva-based agency received the caskets from the Hamas terrorist group following a propaganda ceremony.

Israel filed a complaint with mediators and the Red Cross after the Hamas stage show, saying that it breached the terms of their agreement.

IDF sappers inspected the caskets, which were locked without keys, to ensure they were not booby-trapped. The IDF also verified whether any personal belongings of the hostages were returned with the bodies.

A brief military ceremony was held and presided over by the chief rabbi of the IDF before the bodies were taken to Israel for identification.

Israelis waving national flags and yellow flags in solidarity with the hostages lined the route of the convoy carrying the bodies to the Abu Kabir Forensic Institute in Tel Aviv for identification.

There are now 69 hostages remaining in Hamas captivity in Gaza, of whom 36 are believed to be dead.
JPost Editorial: Let's commemorate our murdered hostages properly, not how Hamas wants us to
Even in death, Hamas will use the moment of return to sow disinformation and play games with the news. The IDF is bracing for Hamas to disseminate that these are casualties brought about by Israeli military action. “Officials vow that all the circumstances leading to the death will be thoroughly investigated and reported to the public openly,” Walla’s Amir Bohbot wrote on Wednesday.

Repatriation of the remains of the hostages will be with a carefully coordinated procedure, beginning with handing over from the Red Cross to the IDF troops. The military will formally salute them, and then the remains will be handed over to the National Center of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir for identification. Only then will the families be allowed to bury their relatives in dignity.

The trauma continues beyond burial. Families of deceased hostages have a disrupted grieving process. As Dr. Einat Yahne, a rehabilitation psychologist, states, “Even among families where the dead were brought to be buried, there was a considerable lag time between receiving the notification and burying the deceased. Some families find it difficult to accept death from intelligence reports alone. In contrast, others who have had to bury their loved ones have heightened psychological distress due to the protracted ambiguity. Some families continue to struggle with excruciating uncertainty.”

Netanyahu’s words remind us that while Thursday will be a day of immense sorrow, it must also be a day of unity. As we lay our dead to rest, as we stand in solidarity with their families, let us commit ourselves once again to their memory, to our shared destiny, and to the unbreakable spirit of the Jewish people.
Dave Rich: Now we see you - again
Professor Joseph Massad of Columbia University described the kibbutzim of southern Israel - including Kibbutz Nir Oz, where the Bibas family lived - as “settler colonies" (even though they are on sovereign Israeli territory) and predicted that “the colonists’ flight from these settlements may prove to be a permanent exodus”. He was wrong about that: unlike the corrupt, hollow Assad regime in Syria, the dictatorships swept away in the Arab Spring, or the Afghan government that couldn’t survive without US backing, Israelis have proven on October 7 and every day since that they have the will to fight and die for their country. They aren’t going anywhere.

Some seem to have regretted their initial flurry of enthusiasm for murder and kidnapping. A lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London - my alma mater where I did my PhD - tweeted “Sometimes partying on stolen land next to a concentration camp where a million people are starved has consequences.” He has since deleted the tweet.

An editor at Novara Media tweeted “Today should be a day of celebration for supporters of democracy and human rights worldwide, as Gazans break out of their open-air prison and Hamas fighters cross into their colonisers' territory. The struggle for freedom is rarely bloodless and we shouldn't apologise for it.” She has since deleted the tweet and, against her own initial advice, has indeed apologised for it.

This is just a sample of the outpouring of nauseating justifications and excuses for Hamas on that day. Back then, shortly after the October 7 massacre, I wrote:
Now we see you. Now we see who and what you really are, with clear eyes. For years we have been told that this is just about supporting human rights, opposing occupation, protesting war crimes. That Hamas was moderating. That antisemitism is not tolerated in your movement. That all you want is one state with equal rights for all. But now we see you. You don’t stand for human rights or against war crimes, not where we are concerned. Right now, it looks for all the world like you are standing for the murder of Jews.

Today, the Jewish world is grieving again. The hope that the Bibas family might have survived became totemic, and now they are lost forever. Looking at the coffins of Shiri, Ariel and Kfir Bibas and Oded Lifschitz being presented today in the latest macabre demonstration of Hamas’s cruelty, I am reminded of those feelings once more.

We see you yet again, all of you who have marched through our cities these past 16 months with your pictures of Hamas paragliders and bulldozers, your placards praising Hamas, your calls for “armed resistance” and “Intifada”, your red triangles and green headbands. You could have led a movement calling for peace, for coexistence, for the return of hostages and an end to all killing. But you didn’t, and this is where your movement has ended up: with Jewish children in coffins turned into grotesque propaganda props by Hamas, all in the name of your glorious resistance.
Jake Wallis Simons: Hamas’s latest stunt is its most despicable yet
On October 7 itself, the Left-wing activist Rivkah Brown posted on X: “Today should be a day of celebration for supporters of democracy and human rights worldwide, as Gaza’s break out of their open-air prison and Hamas fighters cross into their colonisers’ territory. The struggle for freedom is rarely bloodless and we shouldn’t apologise for it.”

She later apologised, but that post has haunted me since. It encapsulates with such concision and eloquence the moral void of the Western Left, which happily expends its every intellectual resource in the service of the worst evil on earth then preens with pride at doing so.

Most tellingly of all, Rivkah Brown is Jewish. Which speaks volumes of the potency of the progressive ideology, which is even able to overwhelm the animal instincts of self-preservation and convert victims into their own tormentors.

This is a microcosm of what the poisonous dogma is doing to our society as a whole. A few weeks ago, a video surfaced of Ghada Karmi, the Palestinian-born academic, physician and author who is a regular on the television sofas and literary panels of Britain. I have encountered her at a book festival myself (she refused to share a stage with me).

In the video, she says: “I want at this point to pay tribute to Hamas. Because, you know, one of the things about the way this situation has been reported and has forced people to see is that Hamas has been completely demonised. You can imagine them as Martians who came down from Mars and had no relationship to human beings at all, as if they’re just random terrorists who go around killing Jews…

“I think it’s worth our while to pause and pay tribute to the resistance of the people of Gaza and Hamas. Without that extraordinary resilience, extraordinary resilience, we wouldn’t be here at all.”

There you have it. It may be illegal to express support for a proscribed terrorist group but her views are not unusual in the progressive orbit, where various shades of sympathy swirl for those who would do for us all. Was it this emetic instinct that explained the shameful documentary on BBC2 this week that was narrated by a 14-year-old whose father was part of Hamas? We will never know, as our national broadcaster is closing ranks. But we may draw our own conclusions.
Silence of 'human rights' NGOs on Bibas babies is complicity with Hamas agenda
Even if these organizations release their necessary lip service hours or days later out of shame, it is already too late. The comparison of their response to Thursday’s events to that of the constant and zealous manner in which human rights organizations attack Israel with claims of genocide, apartheid, or whatever new term they have invented as the weekly bludgeon demonstrates a ridiculous double standard.

That is, the Thursday response to the Hamas ceremony would be indicative of a double standard if it were not made so obvious that the standard never existed.

If universal principles are only invoked when suitable, then they are not a standard for the treatment of people; they are a weapon used to pursue one’s political agenda.

Even on October 7, as Israel was still repelling Hamas attacks and trying to defuse its rocket and mortar fire, NGOs urged Israeli restraint by invoking human rights. At every leg of the war, such human rights organizations pressured Israel for ceasefires, to not address the immediate threats of Gazan terrorist organizations, and to not seek justice against those that raped and murdered their way through southern Israel.

Invoking the sacred words “human rights” about dubious crises, these groups demanded humanitarian pauses and aid that gave succor to Gazan terrorists by allowing them to reorganize and resupply.

Every few years, these groups survive the wars they instigated to fight against Israel another day thanks to the cruel mercy and overbearing nagging of human rights organizations – ultimately leading to October 7, 2023, when orange-haired children were ripped from their Nir Oz home.

Human rights activists likely remained silent on Thursday morning because they believed bringing attention to people celebrating dead babies would “manufacture consent” among the international community to take a hard stance against Hamas and its ilk.

Intentional or not, the human rights regime has facilitated the Hamas agenda and hindered those who seek to stop them. In their complicity with the Hamas agenda, they have made human rights irrelevant.

As surely as Gazan terrorist groups are the ones who ultimately bear responsibility for the deaths of the four hostages, so too are human rights organizations responsible for putting human rights in a coffin next to them.
So, world, what do you think of your ‘resistance fighters’ now?
I accuse Unwra of perpetuating this war by calling the grandchildren of people who left Israel in 1948 “refugees” and encouraging their futile dreams of “right of return”.

I accuse the international political community of cowardice for failing to demand the immediate and unconditional release of all civilian hostages and for, instead, demanding that Israel feeds its enemy.

I accuse the Red Cross of failing to push hard enough to ensure the wellbeing of the hostages and for failing to immediately call out the grotesque hostage return spectacles.

I accuse “humanitarian” charities of parroting the lies of Hamas and not only refusing to fight for the return of child hostages Ariel and Kfir Bibas but becoming involved in trying to stop Israel getting the arms to fight for their children.

I accuse David Lammy of exploiting our pain after he hugged British hostage mother Mandy Damari when she made a public call for the hostages to get humanitarian aid – and then attacked Israel for not giving enough humanitarian aid to Gaza. And for continuing to fund Unwra despite knowing it housed terrorists.

I accuse Sir Keir Starmer of not admonishing his MPs who joined the hate marches.

I accuse the Metropolitan Police and Sadiq Khan of allowing the hate marches – filled with genocidal chants and blood libels – to terrorise Jewish people and parrot Hamas propaganda since October 8 2023.

I accuse the women’s charities of hypocrisy for failing to once speak up against the sexual violence perpetuated on October 7 or demanding that the female hostages are returned: in doing so they have set the feminist movement back decades.

I accuse the Arab states and countries including Ireland, Spain and South Africa of insincerity for insisting there was a “genocide” going on in Gaza but refusing to offer a home to any Palestinian refugees.

I accuse the BBC and Sky of parroting Hamas propaganda and never once saying that footage from Gaza was censored by the fascist terrorist organisation.

I could go on. I am so filled with rage. I do not know any of these people. I don’t hate them. But in refusing to acknowledge what Hamas is, they are agents of harm to our society. They need to be called out, over and over again.
As Gazans Celebrate the Murder of Jewish Women and Children, NPR Calls the Scenes 'More Somber and Much Less Celebratory'
As throngs of Hamas militants and their Gazan allies celebrated over the caskets of four dead Israelis, including two children and their mother, an NPR reporter described the scene as "much more somber and much less celebratory on both sides."

The taxpayer-funded outlet's Tel Aviv-based correspondent, Kat Lonsdorf, gave the description after interviewer Michel Martin noted that Thursday marked "the first time that Hamas has handed over bodies during this war" and asked Lonsdorf to describe the "scene."

"Yeah, it was definitely much more somber and much less celebratory on both sides," Lonsdorf responded.

While that was true in Israel, where mourning citizens quietly gathered together, NPR’s description of the scene in Gaza differed drastically from what unfolded on the ground. Inside the war-torn strip, Hamas terrorists paraded the coffins of two dead children, their mother, and an 83-year-old man through the streets of Gaza before mobs of cheering Palestinians.

Hamas displayed the caskets on a makeshift stage in front of an anti-Semitic sign depicting Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a bloodthirsty vampire snarling above a photo of the murdered captives. Inside the coffins were Shiri Bibas, 32; her two children, 4-year-old Ariel and 9-month-old Kfir; and 83-year-old Oded Lifshitz. Hamas kidnapped them during the terror group's Oct. 7 terror rampage through Israel.


Kassy Akiva: Bibas Brothers Join Count Of 55 Israeli Children Killed Since October 7 Attacks
The bodies of Ariel and Kfir Bibas were returned to Israel on Thursday by the terrorists who kidnapped and murdered them. Upon official identification of their bodies, their death increases the total number of children from Israel who have died in the fallout of the October 7 attacks to 55.

Kfir was nine months old when he was kidnapped, and Ariel was 4.

According to a July 2024 report from Israel’s Ministry of Justice, 53 children were known to have been killed during Hamas’s October 7 massacre and during the war that followed. Twelve of those children were killed by a Hezbollah missile while on a soccer field in the Druze Town of Majdal Shams.

“Our hearts were broken today. On October 7, 2023, Israel suffered its deadliest attack in history,” Dr. Cochav Elkayam Levy, the founder and chair of the Civil Commission on Oct 7 Crimes by Hamas against Women and Children, told The Daily Wire. “ Families were massacred, tortured, taken hostage, witnessed the murder of their loved ones, separated from each other and many, including children, were exposed to the atrocities on social media.”

A total of 870 youth lost one parent in the war, and another 23 lost both parents. Three nuclear families were entirely wiped out.

A report by the Dvora Institute, which Levy helped author, found that Hamas killed civilians as their family members bore witness, especially children. Levy’s report deemed Hamas’s tactics on October 7 a “kinocide,” or a systematic and widespread attack directed against families.
Dearest Shiri
Dear Shiri, my song—your name’s very meaning:
You have lived in my heart for so many months, in the hearts of so many. You are the face—one of the faces—of the tragedy of October 7th and of the tragedy of each and every one of the nearly 500 days that have followed.

Your face, anguished—the face of a mother being taken, abducted alongside her two children, one just three years old, the other only months, cradled in your arms. How strong and steadfast your arms were, holding them close, shielding them from the horror. Your face, as you watched your husband taken too. Your stifled screams, which have become the screams of so many.

Your face—a mother’s face—so Jewish, and at the same time, so much like the faces of other mothers who see their children besieged by evil and have no way to protect them.

Dear Shiri, my song,
For weeks, I have longed to write to you. Not because you will read this. Not because it will make the slightest difference in this tragedy. I write to you for all of us who saw you and dreamt of you. For all of us who longed for you without ever knowing you. For all of us who waited for your return home.

I write for who you are, for what you have endured, and for the pain of the countless mothers you represent.

I hesitated to write because I did not know how to begin. Sometimes, I started my words believing you were alive. Sometimes, fearing you were not. "Do not write until you know," I told myself. "It would be unethical, disrespectful."

But as the days passed, the shadows deepened. Hope dimmed. Expecting the worst yet desperately juggling thoughts to avoid confirming it. "So many days have passed, but they could have survived..." "They are valuable hostages; they will be protected..." A battle of the mind—between the grim possibilities of reality and the desperate prayer for a miracle.

Today, that fragile balancing act is no longer possible. Now we know.

The horror is not less horrific for having been anticipated.
Commentary Magazine PodCast: The Absolute Horror of Hamas
Today we discuss Hamas's killing of the Bibas children and the choices facing Israel as the next phase of the hostage/cease-fire deal approaches. We then move on to Donald Trump's allergy to allies and his view of global security.




Netanyahu: We must ensure Oct. 7 never happens again
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday mourned the four Israelis whose bodies were recovered from Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“The four coffins of our loved ones oblige us more than ever to promise, to swear, that what happened on October 7, [2023], will never happen again,” he said in a statement issued by his office shortly after the identification of Oded Lifshitz’s body.

“The blood of our loved ones cries out to us from the ground. It obliges us to deal with the vile murderers—and we will deal with them,” the prime minister said. “We will return all of our hostages, destroy the murderers, eliminate Hamas and together—with God’s help—we will secure our future.

“O Lord God, to whom vengeance belongs; O God, to whom vengeance belongs, shine forth!” added Netanyahu, citing Psalm 94.


‘Senseless act of terrorism and cruelty’: Hamas hands over bodies of Bibas family
Sky News host Sharri Markson discusses Hamas’ “senseless” act of cruelty as they hand over the bodies of the Bibas family.

“Hamas has handed over to Israel the bodies of mum Shiri Bibas and her two babies, Ariel and Kfir,” Ms Markson said.

“Shiri and her two beautiful sons were stolen from their homes in the greatest of distress on October 7, Hamas and other Palestinian terror organisations kidnapped this mother and her young children, dragging them into Gaza where civilians celebrated.”


"Wasn’t killing a baby and a toddler enough?!” Erin Molan’s raw reaction… Bibas bodies returned.
Erin Molan reacts to the return of the Bibas family’s bodies 💔

In a raw, emotional and teary piece she explains who the terrorists are and why nothing they display, say or do can be trusted.

Hamas are evil. Israel must destroy them with the support of the rest of the world.

Bibas Babies returned in coffins from Gaza. The worst possible outcome. Heart breaking.


Ask Haviv Anything: Comment: We will protect our own
Israelis watched horrified on Thursday, as Hamas gunmen conducted a ceremony handing over four coffins, two of them with the bodies of Kfir and Ariel Bibas, aged 1 and 4, when they were murdered in Gaza, along with their mother Shiri. Oded Lifshitz, 83, was the fourth body handed over to Israel. Around the ceremony, Gazan civilians cheered and threw rice, people brought their kids to watch.

What should we make of this gruesome spectacle, of a festival conducted over the coffins of little children?

Some thoughts on what Israelis, and with them, the whole Jewish world, just witnessed.

Thank you to Joe and Shira Lieberman for sponsoring this episode in honor of those we lost on October 7th.




UN human rights chief: Hamas ‘parading’ of hostages’ bodies is ‘abhorrent and cruel’
The United Nations human rights chief said on Thursday that the parading of the bodies of hostages through Gaza before they were handed over to Israel is abhorrent.

“The parading of bodies in the manner seen this morning is abhorrent and cruel, and flies in the face of international law,” said the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. “We urge that all returns are conducted in privacy, and with respect and care.”

In the statement, UN rights chief Volker Turk added that “under international law, any handover of the remains of deceased must comply with the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, ensuring respect for the dignity of the deceased and their families.”

Hamas said that it returned on Thursday the bodies of hostages Shiri Bibas and her two young redheaded boys, Kfir and Ariel, as well as that of Oded Lifshitz, who was kidnapped at age 83.

Lifshitz’s family said Thursday that they received confirmation from Israeli authorities that his remains were returned. Israel has said it is still testing the other three bodies before providing the Bibas family with confirmation.

Before they were handed to the Red Cross, the coffins were placed on a stage, with armed Hamas gunmen wearing black and camouflage uniforms surrounding the area, and cruel psychological propaganda adorning the stage, including plaques on the coffins declaring the dates of their “arrest” and slogans blaming Israel for their deaths.

In a statement about its role in the handover on Thursday, the International Committee of the Red Cross said the operation should have been done “privately” but stopped short of blaming Hamas.


Argentinian President Milei to declare national day of mourning for slain hostages
Argentinian President Javier Milei posts a photo of Shiri Bibas and her two young sons, Ariel and Kfir, who were kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, 2023, and their remains apparently returned to Israel a short while ago.

He will also, according to Argentinian media, declare a national day of mourning for the slain family, whose bodies were returned by Hamas this morning along with that of Oded Lifshitz, who was also kidnapped alive from Kibbutz Nir Oz.

An Argentinian official tells The Times of Israel that Milei will wait until official information about the bodies is released before making any decision, as requested by the Bibas family.

The Bibas family has dual Israeli-Argentinian citizenship.

The coffins said to contain the remains are being transported to the Abu Kabir forensic institute near Tel Aviv for identification.


'We got to finish the process,' Vance says of hostage release at CPAC
President Donald Trump “loves” the hostage families and has not forgotten their loved ones, Vice President JD Vance said Thursday morning at the Conservative Political Action Conference’s annual confab in Maryland.

“He’s gonna fight every single day to bring them home,” Vance said. “That is exactly what he’s been doing, and that’s what he’ll keep on doing.”Vance recounted a conversation with a friend who asked him why former president Joe Biden was unable to make progress in the hostage-ceasefire negotiations before Trump won the election.

“And I said, ‘Man, it’s just a question of leadership. You actually need a president who is willing to pick up the phone and say you’ve got to bring these people home,’” Vance said.

“You need a president who picks up the phone when negotiations hit a wall and says “cut this crap out, we’ve got to make progress, and you’ve got to keep that pace going,” he said.

“It’s leadership, it really is. And I saw it behind the scenes,” Vance continued.

Vance said before the inauguration, Trump empowered his Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, to speak on his behalf and “get it done.”

“It’s amazing,” he said. “And, of course, we’ve still got work to do.

We’ve got to finish the process, but I really believe the president is as committed to this as any American leader in my lifetime. We’re going to keep on fighting for it.”


‘Barbaric’: US officials react to news Hamas murdered Bibas children
U.S. officials expressed horror and dismay at the news, which Israel confirmed on Wednesday, that Hamas had murdered Shiri Bibas, 33, and her young sons Ariel, 5, and Kfir, 2, and that the terror group was poised to return their bodies and that of Oded Lifshitz, 84.

“The cold-blooded murder of an infant is as barbaric a crime against humanity as one can commit,” wrote Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.). “Hamas has murdered the Bibas family, including Kfir, who was only 9 months old at the time of his abduction.”

“A terrorist organization that murders babies in cold blood cannot be allowed to stand,” he added. “Hamas must be removed from power and eradicated from the face of the earth.”

“The hearts of the world break to learn of the horrific fate of Shiri Bibas, Ariel Bibas, Kfir Bibas and Oded Lifshitz,” wrote Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), U.S. President Donald Trump’s pick to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

“The world must never forget that Hamas terrorists savagely murdered over 1,200 innocent civilians including women, children, babies and the elderly and took hundreds hostage committing unspeakable atrocities against humanity on Oct. 7,” she wrote. “As we learn more about the tragic fates and devastating loss of life of these innocent victims, we are reminded that this must not be Israel’s fight alone but a fight between good and evil, civilization and barbarity.”


How did the world’s most watched hostages disappear from the headlines?
From an hour before until an hour after Hamas released the bodies of four Israeli hostages, almost none of the world’s largest media sites placed the story in the top sections of their websites.

The Jerusalem Post took a screenshot of the top section of several top news outlets – the BBC, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, CNN, CBS, The Guardian, The Times, and Sky News – before and during the hostage body release (up to an hour after the transfer began).

Most sites took over an hour to begin to place the story at the top of their sites. Before the hostage release began, the only site to mention the story in the top section of the website was CNN, with the title “Israeli hostage families forum receives ‘heart-shattering’ news of the Bibas deaths.”

The top stories in the other outlets were all about US President Donald Trump, Ukraine, Russia, and Trump’s comments on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Only after the coffins of the hostages started being released in Khan Yunis did the BBC, The Guardian, and Sky News publish articles or live blogs relating to the event.

During and after the release
Of these three, The Guardian and Sky News used some sort of photo depicting the Bibas family or the children as the story’s image. The only outlet that didn’t was the BBC, which showed an image of the Red Cross vehicles arriving, surrounded by Hamas terrorists.

The Times, The Washington Post, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times did not change their top stories from Russia-Ukraine and Trump items. During the release, CNN changed its existing article to a live blog about the hostages.


1996 bus bomber, freed in ceasefire deal, seen at Hamas ceremony
A Hamas terrorist convicted of mass murder who was released to the Gaza Strip earlier in the current ceasefire was reportedly present at Thursday morning’s propaganda ceremony in Gaza to mark the transfer to Israel of four hostages‘ remains.

Mohamed Abu Warda is responsible for the 1996 Jerusalem bus bombing that killed 44 people. He had been serving 48 life sentences.

Abu Warda was seated in the front row of the Hamas event, which was staged in the Bani Suheila area, east of Khan Yunis, close to the Israeli border.

The ceremony was attended by members of Hamas’ “military wing,” Gazan civilians and terrorists released in previous prisoner swaps. Other terrorists released under the current ceasefire also attended.

In exchange for the hostages’ remains, Israel is expected to release over 600 Palestinian prisoners and detainees this Saturday, as per the ceasefire agreement. These include individuals serving life sentences for attacks on Israelis, as well as women and minors detained during the war.

There are now 69 hostages remaining in Hamas captivity, of whom approximately half are believed to be dead. Six more living hostages are scheduled to be released on Saturday.


UNRWA is an 'October 7 victim,' official claims in webinar with Hamas, PFLP members
“At the end of the day, we at UNRWA were one of the victims of what happened on October 7th.” These words were said by Adnan Abu Hasna, UNRWA’s Media Advisor, who also claimed that Israel had ‘exploited’ October 7th to ‘settle scores’ with the UN agency which employs some 30 thousand people.

Abu Hasna spoke these words during a webinar he took part in on Wednesday, alongside members in Hamas and the PFLP, titled: "UNRWA after the Ban Law and the Arrival of Trump: Dangers and Coping Mechanisms." The webinar was hosted by the Lebanese-based Association 302 for Palestinian Refugees, led by Ali Hweidi, who also acts as an official at the Istanbul-based Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA), an organization designated by Israel as a Hamas front in 2021.

Other key speakers featured in the webinar were Ahmed Al-Hajj, who has served as Deputy Media Official of Hamas in Lebanon, and Salah Abdelati, a self-admitted member of the PFLP's youth group in the past, who was mentioned by the PFLP as a coordinator of the "return marches" riots in Gaza, which were led by Hamas near the Gaza border in the years leading to the October 7th Massacre.

In another Hamas-affiliated angle, the webinar was broadcast by EPAL, a European-based media outlet which has collaborated with the Hamas-owned Shehab outlet several times in the past, and which was chaired by Amin Abou Rashed, another Hamas designated official who was arrested in the Netherlands for suspicions of funding Hamas.
Visegrad24: The Dark Side of UNRWA
This video is for informational and educational purposes only. It presents publicly available news, reports, and official statements regarding international organizations and geopolitical issues. The content does not promote violence, hatred, or discrimination against any individuals, groups, or organizations. Our goal is to inform viewers on complex global matters while encouraging critical thinking and open discussion. We respect all people and cultures and oppose terrorism and extremism in all forms. Viewer discretion is advised.


3 buses explode in Bat Yam, Holon in suspected strategically planned terror attack
Three empty buses exploded in quick succession in parking lots in the Tel Aviv suburbs of Bat Yam and Holon on Thursday night in what police said was a suspected terror attack.

There were no injuries reported in the incidents. Police said they recovered two other unexploded devices on buses nearby. According to Hebrew media reports, those devices were discovered in Holon.

Each of the devices contained 5 kilograms of explosives, Hebrew media reports said.

Police said they were combing the scenes and searching for suspects, while bomb sappers were hunting for any other suspicious items in the vicinity.

Transportation Minister Miri Regev issued an order to the head of the Transportation Authority to halt service and conduct a search of all buses, trains and light rails. Regev was reported to be cutting short a visit to Morocco amid the incident.

Speaking to reporters in Bat Yam, Haim Sargarof, the Tel Aviv District police chief, said that the devices had timers but they were improvised explosives, and that the attack “looks like something [that originated] in the West Bank.”

Sargarof said there was “something written,” on the devices, without elaborating, apparently referencing media reports of a written “revenge threat” from the West Bank city of Tulkarem on one or more of the devices. He said he did not know how many suspects were involved in planning the attack. Police sources told Hebrew media later Thursday that they suspected the attack involved a West Bank terror cell.

“The revenge of the martyrs will not be forgotten so long as the occupier is present on our land… This is a jihad of either victory or martyrdom,” said a statement on a Telegram channel claiming to represent Hamas’s so-called Tulkarem Battalion, which did not directly claim responsibility for the blasts.


IDF demolishes Samaria home of Palestinian killer of two Israelis
Israeli forces operating in the Samaria village of Salfit demolished the home of a Palestinian terrorist who murdered two Jews in August 2024, the Israel Defense Forces said on Thursday.

“As part of the operation to thwart terrorism in northern Samaria, IDF, Israel Security Agency and Israel Border Police forces operated earlier today in Salfit in the Ephraim Brigade [area of responsibility] and destroyed the home of terrorist Amar Odeh,” stated the army.

Amar Razak Kamel Odeh went on a stabbing spree in the central Israeli city of Holon on Aug. 4, 2024, murdering Rina Daniv, 66, and Rabbi Avraham Soumichi, 77, and wounding two, including one seriously.

Odeh, who did not have a valid Israeli residence permit, was killed by a police officer.

The demolition of Palestinian terrorists’ homes has been a subject of controversy for years. Israel’s security establishment believes that the policy bolsters deterrence and prevents further terrorist activity.

In early 2023, demolitions all but stopped, according to an Israel Hayom investigation carried out with Zionist NGO Im Tirtzu. However, in the wake of Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, the army has picked up the pace, issuing demolition orders for a significant number of terrorists’ homes.


There was never a famine in Gaza - Jonathan Turner
There was never a famine in Gaza, says Jonathan Turner, Chief Executive UK Lawyers for Israel. Warnings of imminent famine were based on incomplete and inaccurate information, and the feared famine did not occur.




‘We’re Releasing Dangerous Terrorists. . . and We Accept the Price’
I’m sure you remember the images of Kfir and Ariel Bibas.

They were just nine months and four years old when they were kidnapped by Hamas along with their mother, Shiri, on October 7, 2023. It was impossible to look at the image of her shielding them, her eyes full of terror, the children clinging to her, and not think of the Holocaust.

For more than 500 days, people around the world prayed for the safe return of these babies. Our hopes were raised on February 1, when the fourth member of the family—Yarden Bibas—was liberated after 484 days in Hamas captivity.

But as this episode goes live, Kfir, Ariel, and Shiri Bibas won’t be returning home alive. Hamas instead will hand over their remains.

How can Israel live alongside an enemy that kidnaps and murders babies? And what does it mean for us to live in a world, where people in the West tore down posters of the Bibas children.

Before the devastating news of the Bibas children broke, Bari sat down with Matti Friedman, Free Press correspondent in Jerusalem. They happened to talk on the very day that Kfir and Ariel’s father, Yarden, was released after being kept in unimaginable conditions. Now Yarden confronts the nightmare that his entire family was murdered.

Bari and Matti talk about the toll of this war, why returning the hostages is so fundamentally important to the future of Israel, about the rise of anti-Jewish hate, and about how to be American, Jewish, and Zionist all at the same time, and how Jews are waking up to a new reality in 2025.
The Free Press: How Activists Hijacked Our Institutions

The rise of anti-Jewish feelings has been ‘sudden and dramatic’
Menzies Research Centre Senior Fellow Nick Cater says the rise of anti-Jewish feelings in Australia has been “sudden and dramatic”.

“The rise of this anti-Jewish feeling has been sudden and dramatic,” Mr Cater told Sky News host Rita Panahi.

“This should be alarming.”


Palestinian protestors forget to mention ‘who started the war’
Author Douglas Murray says it “startles” him to see people in Australia protesting for a Palestinian genocide which has “not happened”.

Mr Murray told Sky News host Peta Credlin that the protestors forget to mention “who started the war”.

“The war was started by Hamas; Hamas were the ones who broke into Israel and murdered its citizens.”


‘Emphasis’ needs to be put on what ‘unites’ people to bring about social cohesion
Author Ayaan Hirsi Ali joins Sky News host Peta Credlin on the sidelines of the ARC conference in London.

“If you want to bring about social cohesion in a nation-state, you emphasise what unites us,” Ms Hirsi Ali said.

“You don’t emphasise what divides us”.


Australia urged to implement stronger security checks for Palestinians
Political analyst Amjad Taha has warned Australia of the need to implement stronger security checks in Australia for Palestinian nationals arriving in the country on temporary visas.


Antisemitic arson and vandalism spree leads to arrests of two Sydney men
Two men from the Sydney area were charged on Wednesday as accessories to the January antisemitic attacks in Australia in which cars were torched and homes, including a Jewish community leader’s former residence, were vandalized.

Both are also suspected of being behind the attempted arson of the Newtown Synagogue.

A 37-year-old man and a 33-year-old man were arrested on Wednesday at a correctional facility for the older suspect’s alleged involvement in a January 17 Dover Heights incident and both of their roles in a January 11 Queens Park incident, the New South Wales Police Force (NSW) announced on Thursday.

The older man faces a charge of accessory before damaging property by means of fire, and both face charges for accessory before damaging property in the company and participating in a criminal group activity.

Regarding the main perpetrators of the January incidents, these charges indicated that they are still at large.

The Guardian identified the two men as Adam Edward Moule and Leon Sofilas. Both men were previously charged for the January 11 vandalization and attempted arson of the Newtown Synagogue. After allegedly failing to start a fire, the two commenced to spray-paint the wall and fence of the house of worship with red swastikas.


Protestor found guilty after racially-aggravated hate speech directed towards Jewish people at Leeds rally
Hichem Ben-Abdallah was found guilty of racially-aggravated public disorder at the pro-Palestine protest last summer. He stood a trial at Leeds Magistrates’ Court today.

His sickening comments during the rally included claims that Jews were “stealing babies” and sacrificing them for “evil rituals”.

The 65-year-old, from Morley, denied the offence and said he was “exercising his right to freedom of speech”.

He claimed it was directed specifically towards the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and Zionism, not Jewish people in general, an argument that was rejected by Judge Tim Capstick as being “disingenuous at best”.

The Crown said his words amounted to anti-Semitic “blood libel” - similar to false claims made by Nazi Germany in the 1930s.

District Judge Capstick told Ben-Abdallah that his words were “extremely offensive and insulting”.

Ben-Abdallah, who has no previous convictions, attended the rally outside Leeds Art Gallery on the Headrow on May 11 last year.

Like many similar protests, there was also a gathering of pro-Israel supporters in attendance. It was estimated up to 400 people were present between both sides, prosecutor Ella Embleton said.

During the protest, Ben-Abdallah was handed the microphone and made the claims that the Jews were “thieves” and “cowards” and said they even “stealing Palestinians’ dogs”.

He then made the claims they were stealing organs and babies to be sacrificed.


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Elder of Ziyon - حـكـيـم صـهـيـون



This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For 20 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.

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